


I Almost Feel We’re Moving On

by carnivalinsidemyhead



Category: Take That
Genre: Fluff, Humor, Light Angst, M/M, Pining, The Supernatural, ghost story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:42:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25697497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carnivalinsidemyhead/pseuds/carnivalinsidemyhead
Summary: The day Jason died, it had put a considerable damper on everyone’s spirits.And then he started haunting them.
Relationships: Gary Barlow/Howard Donald, Howard Donald/Jason Orange, Mark Owen/Robbie Williams
Kudos: 16





	I Almost Feel We’re Moving On

**Author's Note:**

> (Loosely) inspired by Mark’s song “Ghost”

The day Jason died, it had put a considerable damper on everyone’s spirits.

And then he started haunting them.

“God damn it, Jay” Mark groaned as he tried, unsuccessfully for the third time, to add more sugar to his coffee, only for the sugar bowl to float out of reach. 

Gary looked up from his bowl of steel cut oats and said in a conciliatory tone, “Eh now. Jay’s just trying to look out for you. Too much sugar’s not good for you. Stunt your growth, that will.”

Mark glared at him. 

“Oh piss off, Gaz.”

Gary raised a bemused eyebrow at that. 

“You really aren’t a morning person, are you lad?”

Mark just glowered at him over his not nearly sweet enough coffee.

Meanwhile, there was a commotion coming from the upstairs bathroom. 

“JASON YOU TURN THE WATER BACK ON RIGHT NOW DO YOU HEAR ME??”

An irate Robbie stomped into the hallway, dripping wet and covered with suds.

Howard peeked out of his room at the racket and sighed. 

“You’re getting the carpet soaked, Bob.”

To the air around him, he said, “yes, yes I know he wastes too much water. but let him rinse off at least, yeah? you can shut it off after that if you like.”

A sort of radiating hum in response.

Howard cocked his head thoughtfully.

“Yeah but he takes twice as long in the shower if he brings Mark in there with him, don’t he?”

Another radiating hum.

Howard burst out laughing. 

“Gives you something to watch, does it? You dirty dead bastard.”

“You watch me and Markie in the shower???” Robbie groaned in exasperation.

“Oh that’s brilliant that is, we don’t just get a ghost, we get a fucking pervert ghost!”  
—  
It wasn’t always unpleasant being haunted, though. There were moments, such as when the four of them fell asleep on the sofa while watching a movie and woke up with the lights dimmed and a blanket draped over them, when it was actually quite lovely. Or when they felt a bit peckish and suddenly found open packets of sunflower seeds wafting toward them and into their mouths like they were baby birds.

(Alright, perhaps the second thing was a bit odd. But it was so very Jason they’d come to treasure it in its oddness.)

But no matter how annoying or lovely Jason’s presence there was, the simple fact remained that he shouldn’t be there.

“I’m worried that Jason’s never going to cross over,” Mark confessed one night at dinner. “It’s been nearly two years already.”

“You’re always worried, Markie,” Robbie answered, but it was an automatic response. He was worried about it too. 

So was Gary.

The only one who wasn’t was Howard.

“Don’t see why you’re in such a hurry to be rid of him,” he muttered quietly, looking down at his plate.

Gary sighed.

“Because it’s not fair to him is it Doug? Our keeping him here.”

“Maybe he wants to stay here? Ever think of that?”

Mark shook his head sadly. “Jay deserves to rest, How, you know he does. And he can’t do that as long as he’s stuck in the realm of the living.”

He took a sip of water, then added, “his insomnia was bad enough when he was alive, he don’t need to be suffering from it for all eternity.”  
—  
The most commonly accepted wisdom regarding ghosts among those who studied them was that the most effective way to get a ghost to stop haunting you was to give it closure. Once it no longer had any lingering worries hanging over it, it could move on. 

The tricky part was figuring out what exactly it was that the ghost needed closure over.

And sometimes the trickiest part of all was helping the living get their own closure and move on with their life.

Because sometimes it was the living who was keeping the dead from leaving.  
—  
Gary sighed to himself as he knocked on Howard’s bedroom door one morning. They were supposed to have gone for a run together, but Howard seemed to have overslept and Gary wanted to check in on him.

There was no response so Gary cautiously opened the door a crack and peeked in.

“Doug? You right?”

Still no response. He opened the door a bit wider and saw Howard sitting on the floor staring into space, mouth moving silently, occasionally letting out brief laughs and making hand gestures to emphasize whatever point it was he was making.

He paid Gary no heed whatsoever.

A crushing sense of sadness came over Gary while watching him. He had hoped that maybe after enough time had passed, that he and Howard might...they might... not to say that he was glad Jason was dead, far from it, he grieved him too, but he’d always had feelings for Howard. He’d never acted on them (although he couldn’t help showing them sometimes) because he didn’t want to drive a wedge between Jason and Howard but he couldn’t help but hope (while hating himself for it) that with Jason gone, he might have a chance to…

But Jason wasn’t really gone. That was the trouble. And Howard was never going to let him go.

And he would never look at Gary like he’d looked at Jason.  
—-  
Gary stood in the doorway for a few minutes, feeling like he was being studied- more so than usual, then turned to close the door behind him and started to walk back down the stairs when he heard the bedroom door creak open and then slam shut with a bang.

And then he felt Howard stumbling into him like he was being pushed. 

“Oi! Watch it would you? You want us to fall and break our necks so you’ll have some more ghost friends or what?”

Howard looked up at the ceiling in irritated bewilderment.

He just got pushed closer to Gary in response.

Gary coughed and blushed as he felt Howard pressing so close behind him.

“Errm, hey Doug”, he turned and gave him a cautious smile.

“Heya Gaz. Soz about this. Dunno what Jay’s on abou…”

He stopped and looked at him and bit his lip, a look of contrition coming over his face.

“You’ve got your running gear on…”

“Yeah.”

“I were supposed to go run with you, weren’t I?”

Gary nodded. His hand brushed over Howard’s. 

“You still can? If you like?”

Howard nodded, somehow feeling suddenly shy and not quite understanding why.

“Yeah, let me just run upstairs and get me trainers on.”  
—-  
Over the next few weeks, Gary and Howard began to spend more time together just the two of them.  
Sometimes it was of their own accord and sometimes they had a little encouragement.  
Such as the times that Mark or Robbie found themselves shoved off the sofa onto the floor if they sat in the middle of them.

“Oi! Watch it!” Robbie rubbed his head ruefully as he tumbled into the coffee table.

Mark laughed as Gary and Howard were pushed practically into each other’s laps.

“Think we got us a matchmaker!”

Gary found himself blushing furiously and started to inch away but a strong arm pulled him back.

“Don’t?”

A strong arm and a gentle and uncertain voice.

Howard was gripping his arm and looking at him like…

Like he was the only man in the world. 

“Gazza?” he asked, still with that uncertainty in his voice.

Gary swallowed nervously.

“Yeah, Doug?”

Howard hesitated, thinking what to say next, knowing there were so many things to say but not trusting words to say them the right way.

So instead he leaned in and sealed his mouth over Gary’s in a kiss that started gentle and timid and curious but soon gave way to heat and hands everywhere and twenty years of pent up passion being let loose and his practically being dragged into Gary’s bedroom while pretending to ignore the whooping cheers coming from the kitchen.  
——-  
And then later that night, after they were all asleep, Gary and Howard tangled up in each other’s arms in one bedroom, Robbie and Mark tangled up in each other’s arms in another, they each felt a fluttering sort of gentle kiss on their lips- like the dream of a kiss rather than a kiss itself and a sort of shuddering shift in the atmosphere and then there was a stillness. 

A stillness that hadn’t been there since before Jason’s death.

In the space before the stillness settled, Howard awoke briefly, sensing the change.

“Goodbye Jay,” he whispered to the air around him. He smiled at Gary asleep in his arms and leaned down to kiss the top of his head.

“Thank you.” 

And then he snuggled back down to sleep.


End file.
